Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Atul Kamble

Go with the flow

A child holds up a woman's pallu against a strong breeze at Marine Drive

A paw-fect celebration

Akshay Ridlan tags a dog in Sion

Back in 2020, Sion's resident Akshay Ridlan found a friend in a stray dog Kaalu. But when one day, Kaalu suddenly went missing, it broke the 19-year-old's heart. "The cause was noise pollution during a festival that confused him," said the now 24-year-old Ridlan, "While I can't do anything about the sound pollution, I decided to make QR code-based Aadhar cards tags for the strays to be safely returned back to their locality." Wednesday marked a year of Pawfriend.in, an NGO founded by Ridlan that has managed to tag over 4,500 dogs across India. "I used up every bit of my savings to make this happen," Ridlan added. To celebrate this feat, he went back to Sion, where he had lost Kaalu, and tagged 50 more dogs at night. "We need more people to join the cause so that strays don't lose themselves amid all the man-made noise," he added.

Strings of a legacy

Shivangi Kapoor, Padmini and Tejaswini Kolhapure

Shivangi Kapoor, Padmini and Tejaswini Kolhapure, daughters of late Pandit Pandharinath Kolhapure, will pay tribute to their father late Pandit Pandharinath through an evening that will witness a soulful three-hour-long performance featuring the first female rudra veena player Vidushi Jyoti Hegde and Indian musician Savaniee Ravindrra at Andheri's Veda Kunba Theatre today.

(right) Late Pandit Pandharinath Kolhapure plays rudra veena; (below, from left) Vidushi Jyoti Hegde and Savaniee Ravindrra

"My grandfather [Pandit Krishnarao] would play the rudra veena at the Baroda Palace," Tejaswini reminisced, "My father also mastered the instrument. He wanted to save the veena from fading away from Indian music." The show is organised by Veena Vardayani Trust (an NGO founded by Pandharinath to predominantly promote the veena and in memory of his father Krishnarao), the Ministry of Culture and the Indira Gandhi National Centre.

Embroidered love

Participants draw at a previous session

Mark the month of love with artist Indu Harikumar (right), as she shows you how to wear your embroidered heart on your sleeve. Come Saturday, Harikumar will host a workshop in Bandra that invites people from across the city to carry along a piece of fabric and their favourite poem to explore the sense of community through art.

"We will sit in a public space, where you read the poem and learn to embroider your favourite lines," Harikumar explained. The only rule? Be ready to put your phone aside. "There is a lot of isolation in the city. I wanted to create a space where two people can sit together drawing or embroidering without having to know each other's names, and still feel a sense of solidarity." Those interested can send an email to indu4@gmail.com.

Greenest of 'em all

Students at a shore walk in Haji Ali

Greenline Mumbai is heading back to school in search of the winners of the Green Schools Campaign, a recently concluded year-long initiative that encouraged schools from Mumbai, Pune and Lonavala to undertake water conservation-themed tasks. "We assigned these schools a task every month. This year, 38 schools participated in rainwater harvesting, water audits, shore walks, and clean-up drives," Neha Bhandare, programme officer, shared. While the results will be out on February 24, Bhandare revealed that Mumbai schools have done well, grabbing more than one spot in the top five list this year.